


An Unexpected Alliance

by aryasnark



Category: Cinderella (2015)
Genre: Ella/Kit is mainly just mentioned, F/M, i liked writing this, yay!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 02:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3674193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryasnark/pseuds/aryasnark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Chelina had heard the Grand Duke and the woman mention "a girl". The girl had to mean the mystery princess. And the woman knew where she was. And most importantly, the Grand Duke had no intention of sharing the information with Kit. But, unfortunately for the Grand Duke, Chelina had other intentions.</p><p>(request fic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Alliance

Princess Chelina had never truly wished to be Prince Kit's wife. Of course, he was handsome, anyone could see that. But Chelina could see from the moment they met that they had absolutely nothing in common, and she knew neither of them could truly be happy with people they were not fiercely in love with. Perhaps passion was the one thing they did have in common. 

Once Chelina heard that Kit was determined to find the mystery princess from the night of the ball, she was not surprised. They had seemed quite smitten with each other, which was why she had been so surprised to hear that she had ran away from the prince. But he seemed determined to believe that the girl had been forced to leave. And Chelina thought it might just be so.

Soon after the king died, and Chelina knew it would be impolite to leave before the funeral, so she stayed. She stayed in the castle, and most of all, stayed out of everyone's way. She knew the Grand Duke was more than eager to marry her off to the new king, and Chelina understood why. She would come with a very handsome dowry, and the kingdom would be secured for a lifetime. But she also knew that the new king did not care about such matters. 

On a particular night, as Chelina was walking through the halls, on her way to her bedchambers, she suddenly stopped as she heard conversation coming out a room down the hall. The door had been left unlocked by accident, and Chelina could hear the Grand Duke's rather obnoxious voice.

"Are you threatening me?" she heard, and soon enough a female voice Chelina did not recognize replied: "Yes."

Chelina froze, deciding to stay for the rest of the conversation. She had always been curious and prone to gossip, and an opportunity like this could not be left unused.

"What do you want?" the Grand Duke spoke again, and Chelina tried very hard to hear the woman's voice. She could hear the determination in her voice, but she also knew she was scared. As she should be. Conspiring against the throne. 

As it turned out, the woman wanted to be a countess, and she wanted assurance that her two daughters would be wed to rich, good husbands. How very typical. But the question that remained was: what did the woman have on the Grand Duke? How could she be threatening him?

Chelina waited in the shadows until the woman had left. And after she had, the princess peeked into the Grand Duke's chambers and saw him toying with the remains of the glass shoe. And then it came to Chelina. 

She had heard them mention "a girl". The girl had to mean the mystery princess. And the woman knew where she was. And most importantly, the Grand Duke had no intention of sharing the information with Kit. 

But, unfortunately for the Grand Duke, Chelina had other intentions.

She knew that if the Grand Duke had his way, Kit and Chelina would be wed. There were worse faiths, but Chelina was a romantic at heart, and she knew that if there was a chance she could help Kit reunite with his true love, she had to take it. Which was why, that night, she marched into Kit's chambers instead, knocking on the door. And she had to admit, the shocked expression on Kit's face when he opened the door to find her was quite priceless. 

"What are you doing here?" he blurted out, clearly forgetting his manners. No one could blame the poor lad, though. He had clearly been asleep already.

"I have to tell you something", Chelina said, walking into the room without waiting for an invitation. She smiled in amusement at the sight of the king wearing nothing but his breeches. He was quite a sight, Chelina could not claim otherwise. Perhaps in another life the could have loved each other, but not in this one.

"The Grand Duke is not your friend", Chelina said simply. And so she told him everything. She told him about his obsession with marrying the two of them together, she told him about what she had heard the Grand Duke conspire about, and she told him about the shoe.

"He is going to proposition you, I think", Chelina said as she waited for Kit to process it all. "He wants to lead you into a trap."  
"I know", Kit said quietly. "A trap you helped him set", he turned his eyes to the woman. 

"Me?" Chelina scoffed. "You are an ungrateful one, aren't you? And very arrogant", she glared at him angrily. "I agreed to the marriage because it would be best for my kingdom. But trust me, I do not need to conspire to get myself a good husband."

Kit felt bad immediately, realizing that he had been out of line. Chelina was his ally now, not his enemy. "Forgive me", he said quickly. "I'm just... what do we do?"

"You pretend to go along with the Grand Duke's plan", Chelina said simply. "And you and I will make sure he doesn't fool you twice."

It had not been easy for Chelina to fit into the enormous clothes the Captain gave her and Kit to wear as disguise. Kit even laughed softly as he saw her place the hat on top of her head.

"You should change your style", he smirked. "That looks good on you."

"You don't look that charming either, you know", Chelina rolled her eyes. "This is the only way we can observe the situation, and wait for the right moment to announce ourselves. And then you'll be reunited with your love, I promise you."

Kit nodded. "Why are you doing this? Why do you care?"

"Because once you find your true love, I will be able to get rid of you", Chelina smirked with malice in her eyes. "And maybe I don't like seeing two people who love each other being torn apart by the world."

"In any case, I thank you", Kit said, turning to look at the Captain. "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

The Captain chuckled. "As ready as I can be, Your Highness."

Everything had gone according to plan. They had arrived at the correct house, the Grand Duke had let the woman's daughters try on the glass slipper, and Kit and Chelina had waited. Waited for the right moment. And then they had heard her sing. And the moment came.

Again, Chelina had been very pleased to see the stunned expression on the Grand Duke's face as they removed their disguises.  
After the initial shock was over, however, Chelina had encouraged Kit to step into the house and fetch his love while the rest of them waited. 

It did not take long for Kit to come out of the house, hand in hand with the pretty girl he had danced with at the ball. 

Chelina knew, as she watched them, as happy as ever, that this had been the right thing to do. And now she could return home, and maybe, with a little bit of luck, she could find a love as strong as theirs.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't like Princess Chelina in the movie, and I liked her even less in the book, but I found it surprisingly good fun to write about her! Hopefully this is not total rubbish :)  
> Also, I know a lot of people consider Chelina a lesbian/bisexual, mostly because she asked who Ella was(?). I mean, she could easily be either of those things, but I hardly think her looking at Ella proves that, especially since she was not doing so in the book. But in any case, I left the gender of her ideal match unmentioned, sort of to indicate that I think she's bisexual, because why not? :)


End file.
